Airplane mode hasn't been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists.
Putting your phone in airplane mode when boarding a flight feels like common sense. You wouldn’t be crazy for thinking your phone signal could interfere with an airplane’s navigation systems, potentially causing a disaster. However, the necessity of airplane mode is largely a myth, and there’s another reason airlines are asking you to turn your phone off. Europe decided to allow phone calls and data usage on flights in 2022.
“With advances in cell phone technology since 1991, rule banning 800 MHz cell phone use in flight, may not be needed in order to protect the terrestrial or ground-based cellular networks,” said FAA administrator Nicholas Sabatini in his testimony. But the rule banning cell use on planes persisted. In 2013, the FCC got a new chairman, Tom Wheeler, who wanted to shake things up by enabling phone calls and data usage on flights. It started a huge controversy, but not for technological concerns.